Dry Firing S&W Model 41 with Clark Barrel

M

mikemyers

New member
I bought a Clark Barrel for my S&W Model 41 two years ago, as I wanted to add a red dot sight, but didn't want to drill holes in the original 1980's barrel. This resulted in a lot of discussions with the people at Clark, and when I asked about dry firing, I was told they do it all the time, as training before a match. They suggested that I field strip my gun, then press in the firing pin in as far as it goes (before it's stopped by the pin that goes over it), and see if the firing pin protrudes too much into the breach area.

This got me to thinking - can I remove the barrel, and "paint" the back of the barrel with Dykem, and start to dry fire, constantly checking the Dykem. If the Dykem never gets "marked", presumably I can assume that my gun can be dry-fired as much as they do at Clark.


As a follow-up question, if I were to load up magazines with once fired 22 rounds, would those cycle through the gun manually, for the purpose of dry firing?
 
I don't know about the Clark barrel but I do know that my firing pin will strike the breach face on my S&W barrel.

For the few times that I needed to dry fire mine I used 4-6-8 X 7/8-Inch plastic drywall anchors as snap caps. Cheap and I have leftovers should they be needed later. They work well.
 
A few years back, I couldn't find real "snap caps" for 22LR. There were only "dummy rounds". They were intended to check the your gun is cycling properly, not for dry fire. I'll check again, and see if things have changed.
 
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Probably about 10. They're dirt cheap.

Why would you want to dry fire your gun after it's finished being set up? Go shooting.
 
In my mind, with such a heavy gun, light trigger and low recoil, dry firing doesn't really apply. I'm using a 2 moa red dot on my gun and that is giving me input on poa and poi. And I don't have to round up snap caps on the floor.

But that's just me. Happy shooting. Hope you enjoy your 41 as much as I do mine.
 
Yea, its what I need to do, don't want to drill my OEM circa 1977 barrel.

Short story7 was the gun counter guys would pull them, buy them and sell them for big bucks.

I was curisng a Pay N Pak (yep) and there one was, $168 as I recall.

I told the counter kid I would buy it. Want to look at it? Nope, buy it, hmm ok.

Then the old counter guy comes out from back by which time its in my hand.

Oh, sorry sir, that is a mistake, its not for sale.

You are right, its mine, and I don't intend to sell it.

No sir, you don't understand, it was not supposed to be put out.

Me: Yea, I know the drill, its mine, you want to come and try to pry it out of my hands? You screwed up and you don't get this one!

Ahh, loved the dirty look. Easily going for 3 to 5 bills (used of course!)
 
Makes no difference who made the barrel. It's regular dry firing of a rim fire that can cause chambers to get peened and the occasional broken firing pin.
Never had any issue with my 41 though. Only dropped the fp for storage though.
 
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